He drank all the water I gave him, but he hadn't much to say for
himself. I walked back to the governor.
"'He asks for a bullet in his head before we go,' I said. I wasn't at
all pleased.
"'Oh, that's out of the question altogether,' says the governor.
"He was right there. Only four shots left, and ninety miles of wild
coast to put behind us before coming to the first place where you could
expect to buy revolver cartridges.
"'Anyhow,' I tells him, 'he wants to be killed some way or other, as a
favour.'
"And then I go on setting up the boat's mast. I didn't care much for the
notion of butchering a man bound hand and foot and fastened by the neck
besides. I had a knife then--the honourable Antonio's knife; and that
knife is this knife.
"Ricardo gave his leg a resounding slap.
"First spoil in my new life," he went on with harsh joviality. "The
dodge of carrying it down there I learned later. I carried it stuck in
my belt that day. No, I hadn't much stomach for the job; but when you
work with a gentleman of the real right sort you may depend on your
feelings being seen through your skin. Says the governor suddenly:
"'It may even be looked upon as his right'--you hear a gentleman
speaking there?--'but what do you think of taking him with us in the
boat?'
"And the governor starts arguing that the beggar would be useful in
working our way along the coast.
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